Hospital architecture must balance the needs of an ever-changing environment driven by developing technologies, complex workflows, infection control, patients with increasingly complex illnesses and sophisticated engineering systems, whilst also navigating and incorporating social and environmental sustainability, economics, and most importantly - human beings. NBH is vast and complex with 70000m2 of space contained within its walls.

A key focus of the project was to create a sense of welcome for patients, their families and the hundreds of staff who inhabit it daily. An important part of being welcoming is to counter the stress and anxiety often felt in hospitals, and to remove the sense of the anonymous institution. This has been accomplished through consideration of scale, material, color, texture and importantly, clarity in navigation.